How do you go about deciding if you want to build
another player collection?
Currently I am working on the Griffey collection, now at 430 unique cards, I want to hit 500 cards before the end of the year so any other athletes card I collect are just random pieces here or there when I come across a good price. I am torn but I have a feeling that if I work on adding any other players I will lose focus on my Griffey collection and that is my sports card pride and joy.
When it comes to collecting cards... I'm a man with little barriers. I have my main player PC's where I collect anything and everything I can get my hands on. I guess you could call them my top tier players. Then I have my guys who I mainly collect their autographs , inserts, and memorabilia cards. The main reason I focus on just those three types of cards is lack of space.
ReplyDeleteBut everyone is different. Gwynn will always be my main PC... with Maddux and Ichiro right behind him. Is there a chance that some Gwynns slip by, because I'm focusing on other players too? Totally. But it's worth it, because I enjoy collecting all of those other guys.
This is a good question. My PC's are based on a lot of factors (personal connections, my own cardboard history, local guys, etc.), but the biggest one is whether I get excited about pulling a certain player's card out of a pack or finding them in a dime box. I found myself sifting through hundreds of like cards but setting aside guys like Buhner, Dan Wilson, and Javy Lopez, among others. That propensity towards keeping their cards is what led me to PC them. I have a lot of (maybe too many) PC's now, so adding them is not a decision I take lightly (like Fuji sez - space is at a premium, especially with over 8000 Griffeys to keep tabs on).
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you're making Buhner offical as one of your PC's, I'm going to dump a ton of his cards on you when I send out my summer trade packages. BE WARNED!
The majority of my PCs are structured pretty simply so I don't spend a ton of money collecting them: their flagship Topps card each year (or cards, in the case of trade/free agent updates), one bat relic, one jersey relic, and one figurine (McFarlane/bobblehead/etc). I might add an autograph to that at some point, but I don't have the cash flow to make that happen.
ReplyDeleteFor one player (Jose Altuve) I collect all of his base and insert cards, but none of his parallels (unless I happen to come by them or they're sent to me). And three players are full-out PCs, one of every card issued.
The regular player collections are based on connections of some sort - my favorite players today and as a child, essentially. They've expanded over the years, and adding (and completing) them is easy.
Altuve is a player I've followed since minor league ball, and I have a bat he broke at the first game in which I saw him play. Given the fact that I started collecting him from the beginning, that collection is easier to build without worrying much about older singles.
Two of the three major players are retired - Charlie Hough was a project I started last year because I've always sort of admired him for some strange reason. Seeing this old dude on the mound for the Marlins in 1993 and tossing these unhittable slow balls up there was kind of fun. And Geoff Geary was a player I saw often during batting practice when I went to Braves games (I somehow ended up going a lot when the Phillies were in town). He was hilarious and interacted a lot with the fans; he was the kind of guy that most ballplayers used to be. Honestly, neither of them have a ton of cards - Geoff Geary has around 50 I think, while Charlie Hough is under 400. So completing those collections is attainable, something impossible with Tony Gwynn or Nolan Ryan.
And I collect Buck Farmer because I taught and coached him (a little) when he was in high school.
So after all that, I'd say, I add players when I want to. And while some of my collecting money goes toward the smaller collections instead of the big three, I'm happy seeing those ones grow and reach completion too.